Some might consider this a trade secret; however, I want to share this with the Community (and, hopefully, it will help alleviate the complaints when Tactical Team gets 'brought into line' down the road, as it should be).

Distributing your ship's Shields is one of the most important, yet, often, most neglected skills for new players. Some may not even realize that you are able to redirect your Shield strength, others that may not realize how important it is to do so. Not only does Distributing your Shields help to keep a shield facing up, and, hopefully, avoiding the full-strength damage of enemy projectile attacks; it also helps to maximize your mileage out of shield regeneration, as any regeneration that would normally be applied to a full shield facing, is not applied to the remaining facings, but is wasted, thus, if under fire, it is in your best interests to constantly be balancing your Shields.

Many players, myself included, put the Distribute Shields ability into a slot on one of our hotbars, and this is a good way to help train yourself to use it, but what if there were an easier and even more effective way to use it? Well, it turns out that there is...

Some players (again, myself included) are not comfortable with writing keybinds, some would not even know where to start; so, one of my friends who is much more comfortable with writing in-game keybinds, came up with this:

All you need to do is copy that entire line (in the quote box above), paste that line into your chat box (with nothing else), then press Enter.

What does that do for me? Quite simply, it makes it so that every time you press your spacebar, it triggers the Distribute Shields effect (the same as if you had clicked on the power from your ability bar, or clicked the center of your ship icon on the main UI).

Does that interfere with the normal function of the spacebar? Not at all, it will still behave exactly as it did before, only now, it will also distribute your shields for you. Instead of manually having to remember to hit the key in your ability bar or click the center of your ship icon on the UI, just spam that spacebar (like so many of us do), melt your opponents, and keep those shields balanced out and effective.

This is not going to suddenly turn an average PvP-er into a QEW All-Star, however, it might just give you a little more survivability, and the opportunity to spend some additional time in combat, learning the ins and outs of PvP, from some of those same top-tier PvP players.

-Big Red Goomba

NOTE: To test whether the keybind is applied properly, simply enter any System space (ESD or Qo'noS is usually sufficient) and tap your spacebar... You should see the four shield facings on your ship icon in the main UI start to flash, exactly the same as if you clicked on the center of that icon, or pressed a Distribute Shields hotkey.